


Crisis On Infinite Earths: The Race Begins

by okoriwadsworth



Series: Crisis on Infinite Earths [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:14:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26180059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okoriwadsworth/pseuds/okoriwadsworth
Summary: This story is on hiatus. I can't think of where else to go with it, and other stories have been calling to my attention. There may come a time when I pick this back up again. Thank you for reading it.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Patty Spivot, Nyssa al Ghul/Sara Lance
Series: Crisis on Infinite Earths [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742500
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Crisis On Infinite Earths: The Race Begins

And So We Begin Our March.

**_On Earth-38, on the rooftop of the DEO_ ** _……_

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(Nyssa Lance-Raatko’s POV)

Well this was new, Nyssa thought as she unsheathed her sword and stood by her wife, her wife’s former boyfriend, his new wife, and his little brother. None of them, not one, would have been here without Oliver Queen’s influence, she begrudgingly admitted to herself. They had battled several times, just to spar, and she found herself always a hair behind him. It had been his brain, and his capacity to think on the fly, that had been the deciding factor.

And now, because everyone in their shared orbit had understood that they had to be a hero and what it meant, here they all were. She supposed, that if she had a few more months, she would have understood what this was supposed to be. But despite the glamourous life she now had, as a time-traveling legend who lived with her equally rich wife, she knew what she would always be. In her soul, beneath the fancy dresses and everything else, she would always be an assassin.

But from what she had learned, and the depth of feeling she had towards everyone who was alongside her now, that was not something she needed to be ashamed of any longer. As a graduate of the Sorbonne, Cambridge, and with a job that enabled her to get 25 PHD’s worth of historical experience, she still struggled to understand the finer points of the multiverse. On this, though, she was perfectly calm. To do her job as a legend, she had long ago realized, one did not need to know every trick of the game, every bounce of the ball. All she needed to know was that, at this moment, her world needed saving. As did every other one that existed. And if you wanted someone to stand guard and fight, Nyssa Al Ghul was your woman.

And at this exact moment, as she drew her blade and got into attack position, they all heard the crash of thunder. Even if they didn’t know where it was coming from, every person on this rooftop knew what it meant. They had been there when their Flash, the kindest person they knew, had sprinted in to save them from something horrible. THAT had been the sound that saved their lives more times than a polymath could count. And to know that it was heralding someone different, someone who had the face of their friend but had utterly been warped by loss, was a heartbreak none of them wanted to think about.

(Barry Allen’s POV)

The Flash had plenty of experience with the Multiverse. He was intimately familiar with all of the various and sundry earths, so he believed nothing could particularly surprise him. But to see this, see a version of himself that had let his pain warp him into something unrecognizable, dark, and brutal, was something that he didn’t imagine.

This Flash was him in every way, and so they stood across from each other. But almost as quickly, Barry could tell the differences. For one, it was the lightning. Every speedster has a different color. Barry’s, and every other speedster who had the speed force in them, was yellow in color. Barry, after 6 years of doing good, had seen his lightning become richer, more substantial, until it was almost goldenrod in color. Those who augmented their poorer connection with the speed force using artificial means saw their lightning turn blue, for however long they might have happened to have it. Iris’s turned purple that one time, which he took to mean the Speed Force knowing something was wrong but not knowing how to fix it.

But right now, what he was seeing was pure, unfiltered Negative Speed Force. And it hurt his soul to imagine that, in some universe, this had happened to him. He had known it **COULD** , of course. That whole business with Savitar a few years ago, when it turned out to be a version of himself from another earth, had damn-near made him suicidal. It had only been Patty, always Patty, who reminded him of how much he had to live for. But now, 3 years past that day, he could see this utterly destroyed version of himself and KNOW how easy it would have been to become so broken.

He would weep later, when this was done. But he had a job to do, and so he would do it.

And as golden lightning flickered behind his eyes, he glanced to his left and right and felt a freedom he never had. These men and women, these hardy souls by his side, knew what it was to fight. And, if he had to go into a battle to save everything that there had been, it would be a balm that he knew his allies would fight until there was no more breath in them.

“So, you were sent to destroy us, to rebuild this earth in your image?” The Flash asks, knowing the answer before he’s even done with the question.

“Such a silly, simple, myopic question. As usual, the heroes of this multiverse are overloaded, _DRIPPING_ , with saccharine Americana and appeals to false honor. What you will feel, in your last breath before I defeat you, is the realization that you will never, have **NEVER** , been fast enough to stop what’s coming. If you can catch me, Flash, I’ll tell you why you’re going to lose” said this Dark Flash, scars on his face.

And then, the Dark Flash sped off and Barry saw it in terror and determination. The Dark Flash’s lightning wasn’t red like Thawne’s had been, but instead the color of the paradigm for speedsters. This Dark Flash’s lightning was white. None of that mattered to Barry Allen, though. He had a race to win.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is on hiatus. I can't think of where else to go with it, and other stories have been calling to my attention. There may come a time when I pick this back up again. Thank you for reading it.


End file.
